Thinking of You?
by G66XD66
Summary: After getting a few chances to spend more time with Tororo, Taruru begins to question just how he feels about the young hacker. Whether Zoruru allows him to live long enough to work it out is a mystery...
1. Healing Touch

"Tororo, open up! You can't stay in there forever!"

Pururu was knocking loudly on the young hacker's door, only pausing every so often to hear if she'd got a reaction out of the salmon tadpole. The most she'd gotten so far was an annoyed huff and the sound of something being thrown at the door.

"At least tell us _why_ you're hiding in there?"

Nothing. Pururu gave up and made her way back to the rest of the platoon, who were sat in the living area of their ship.

"She won't come out. She won't say anything at all" Pururu explained as she sat in the nearest seat with an exasperated sigh.

"There's something wrong…" Zoruru huffed before standing from his chair.

"Calm, Zoruru" Garuru murmured from his spot next to him.

"Yeah, _I_ haven't been to check on her yet," Taruru pouted from the side "I'm the only one who hasn't!"

Zoruru glared at the light blue frog across from him. Ever since joining the platoon, he'd always been suspicious of Taruru, and he didn't like him going anywhere near Tororo. The hacker was like a little sister to him, and he'd be damned if that bumbling idiot even _thought_ of touching her.

"You have a point, I suppose you could try" Pururu said, shifting into a more comfortable seating position.

"Sweet!" Taruru grinned before getting up. Zoruru was about to protest but was silenced by a sharp look from his leader. The cyborg assassin huffed irritably before slowly taking his seat again, eyeing the first class private as he left the room.

Creeping sneakily up to the entrance to Tororo's room and make shift lab, he lightly rapped his fist on the metal door.

"Tororoooooo…!," He drawled in the most annoying way he could manage, "Open the door or I'll eat all your left over pizzaaaaaa…."

"If you even _think _of doing that, I'll eat YOU" came the muffled reply. Taruru did a double take, expecting the silence she gave everyone else.

"What's up with you today?"

Silence.

"Tororo?"

He removed his hand from the door when he felt movement on the other side. The door creaked open slightly and the disgruntled face of the smaller frog came into view.

"Just come in" She mumbled. Taruru was about to say something, but thought better of it and let her usher him inside. Taking a seat near her bed he looked at her expectantly. She stared him down for a second before sitting on her bed with a sigh.

"I feel a little sick, ok?" Tororo admitted. Taruru's brow furrowed in confusion

"What, are you on your period or something?" Taruru asked sceptically before being floored by a surprisingly heavy pillow.

"No, you idiot. I don't _know_ what's up with me and that's precisely the reason I let _you_ come into the room and not the others" She huffed, folding her arms. Seeing Taruru's dazed, yet still confused look, she sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I didn't want to tell Zoruru because he would freak out and make a big deal of it, I didn't want to tell Pururu because she'd stab me with her syringe and I didn't tell Garuru because… well… I'd feel awkward telling him" She explained.

"What makes ME easier to talk to?" Taruru asked

"You'll just take it like a sane… well, san_er_ person and not smother me" Tororo pointed out.

"True," Taruru agreed, his face relaxing to a neutral expression. "So what's up exactly?"

Tororo stared at her hands with a frown.

"Everything aches and I'm finding it a little hard to breathe… like I've just run a marathon, which is stupid"

"Dead right, you've never run in your life!" Taruru chuckled before being punched lightly by the salmon tadpole.

"Shut up" she snapped, before getting back to her explanation, "It feels like some sort of muscle spasm. I might have strained myself too much over a machine I was building rather than walking around it."

"Don't be stupid. You don't HAVE muscles" Taruru chuckled, dodging another blow from the grumpy tadpole. Gritting her teeth, the smaller frog forced herself to calm down.

"I let you in because I thought you might want to help me" She grunted.

Taruru sighed and glanced at Tororo apologetically. The Salmon tadpole closed her eyes and breathed out slowly before turning to the blue frog completely.

"I need you to do something for me" She said, looking like she would regret what she was about to ask. Taruru tilted his head.

"My chest is very tight, and hurts much more than anywhere else… I want you to… f-feel if there IS a tightened muscle there…" She managed to mumble, lowering her head in embarrassment. Taruru's eyes widened and his cheeks went pink.

"Y-you want me t-to… I can't do _that_!" He squeaked, shuffling away from her ever so slightly.

"Look, I can't do it myself because I instinctively won't press hard enough for fear of hurting myself. Just _do it_, will you? Get it out of the way…" She lowered her arms so they weren't in the way of her white chest area. Taruru shook his head and backed up a little more, but relented when met with Tororo's dark glare. He shuffled closer to her, and tentatively held his right hand out towards her… before pulling away at the last second.

"I can't do it Tororo, it's too weird!"

Tororo sighed, before grabbing the younger frog's hand and forcefully placing it on her chest. Taruru's face exploded into colour, and he tried to splutter out his protests before being silenced by the tadpole before him.

"You're there now. Just do it" She hissed, and he nodded jerkily, not wanting to wind her up any more than he already had. Slowly and unsurely, he gently slid his hand along her soft flesh, feeling for any abnormalities, as she requested. His blush deepened when he felt an unusually taught part right in the centre of her chest. He quickly whipped his hand away and let out the breath he was holding.

"Y-yeah… It feels a little… harder t-than it should near the top," He muttered almost unintelligibly, licking his dry lips before continuing, "You also feel a bit over heated… m-maybe it's a flu or something…" He looked up shyly to see Tororo staring at him with a raised eye ridge.

"Pu pu pu! You are such a wuss" she said, although her own cheeks had gone a little pink, too.

"Sh-shut up, you pretty much molested me just then!" Taruru sputtered, realising that what he had said didn't really make much sense, but knowing what he meant.

"It was for medical reasons, fish face" She pointed out.

"T-then you should have asked Pururu to do it!"

"Like I said, she'd jab me with a needle or something"

Taruru opened his mouth, then closed it again, glaring at Tororo in thought.

"I'm gonna have to tell her anyway, you know. _I_ can't help with whatever's up with you"

Tororo stared at Taruru for a second before averting her eyes in embarrassment.

"That's true…" She sat up again, stony faced. "Go and get her, then. I'm not going out there"

Taruru stood up and hastily made his way over to the door. He gave a quick nod without looking back at her and closed the door behind him. He stood at the other side of the door for a second before shuddering.

"Awkward…" Was all he could say before he pushed away from the door and went to meet back with the others in the living area.

"Ah, Taruru, you were gone for a while. Did you get her to come out?" Pururu asked, looking back down the hall where Taruru had come from as if expecting to see Tororo magically materialise and walk towards them.

"No. But she invited me in. She says she's feeling sick, and that she hurts all over"

"Then why didn't she let _me_ in to see her?" Pururu asked, confusion written all over her features.

"She said she didn't want you to jab her with a syringe" Taruru replied, not realising how childish it sounded until just now. Was Tororo afraid of needles?

"Why would she only want to see _you_?" Zoruru asked, his visible eye narrowed in suspicion. Taruru did not want to have to repeat everything Tororo had told him, so he settled with a shrug.

Pururu got up and was about to leave, when she suddenly turned back to Taruru.

"Did she have any visible injuries, like bruises or something?" She asked, clearly wanting to know before she got there so she could give her the necessary medication.

"Not really… her chest was kinda hard, though…" Taruru trailed off when he realised what he said. Pururu looked bemused, and Garuru hadn't reacted, but Taruru could _feel_ the death glare Zoruru was shooting at him from the side.

"How do you know something like that?" Zoruru growled, causing Taruru to slowly turn to face him.

"Did you touch her?"

"No! Well… not _really_… I mean, she-"

"I'm going to KILL YOU!" Zoruru roared as he lunged at Taruru, the younger frog squealing as he tried to outrun the enraged cyborg. Pururu opened her mouth to tell Zoruru to calm down, but before she could voice the first syllable, they were gone. She sighed.

"Zoruru needs to stop jumping to conclusions like that…" She said to herself, looking over at Garuru who was looking out of the door with mild interest.

* * *

"Hold still... Don't tense your muscles…" Pururu instructed as she gently injected a spasmolytic muscle relaxant into the area above Tororo's shoulder. The salmon tadpole kept an uninterested look on her face, but couldn't help wincing when the needle went in. When she was done, Pururu removed the needle and cleaned the area she injected before sticking some soft gauze over it.

"My muscles are already tensed, there's nothing I can do about that, _old woman_" Tororo spat condescendingly.

"Tororo!" Pururu frowned, before sitting next to the whiny tadpole.

"You seem cranky today. Is it… you know… that time of the month?"

"I'm NOT menstruating, okay? That's the second time I've been asked that today…" Tororo hissed, swiftly lowering her gaze to the shoulder which was injected.

"Hmm…" Pururu stood up and gathered her supplies.

"If you need to talk, you know I'm here"

"Yeah, yeah…" Tororo huffed before swivelling around on her office chair and wheeling over to the table she was currently using her laptop on. Pururu sighed and closed the door, only for it to be knocked on a few minutes later.

"What?" Tororo called, not bothering to even turn her head.

"It's me" Came the gruff voice of Zoruru as he entered the room, closing the door behind him. Tororo spun her chair round and slid off it, walking towards him.

"What's up, scraps?" She asked him as she sat down on her bed and patted the place next to her.

"Jus' came to see how you were…" Zoruru grunted before sitting next to her. Tororo looked up at him quizzically.

"That's not all though, is it?" She prompted.

Zoruru said nothing for a moment, before he turned to face her.

"Where did he touch you?" He growled.

"What…?" Tororo questioned before realisation hit her.

"Oh! Oh no, Taruru didn't feel me up or anything" Tororo reassured him. Zoruru seemed to relax slightly.

"Then what did he do?"

Tororo sighed.

"My chest felt tight and hurt much more than anywhere else, so I asked him to see if he could feel a taut muscle there or not. He didn't _want_ to do it, I essentially _forced_ him to"

Zoruru grumbled, obviously not happy with what had happened but accepted it wasn't Taruru's fault. He looked back up at the hacker when he heard her giggling.

"What?"

"Pu pu pu! Aw, you were worried about me, how sweet!"

"Shut up" He mumbled, playfully grazing her arm with his fist. Tororo chuckled some more before standing up and making her way over to her desk again.

"You go ahead and meditate or something, I have some work to do" She hummed as she sat down at the computer. Zoruru was about to complain but instead he roase from where he sat and made his way out of the room.

"Don't strain yourself, princess" Zoruru smirked

"I told you not to call me that" Tororo huffed.

"And _I_ don't care" Zoruru called as he left to room.

"What a douche" Tororo chuckled to herself as she got back to her spread sheets. However, now that Zoruru had reminded her of the situation with Taruru earlier, she couldn't really concentrate properly. Why had he made such a big deal out of it? Sure, it was a kind of intimate area to lay his hand upon, but it's not like she asked him to touch her… lower regions. That thought alone made her blush madly.

"Stupid Taruru, blushing about stupid stuff" she mumbled to herself as she plugged in her MP3 and focussing on the music, finally being able to think about what she was _supposed_ to be doing…

**A/N**

**Oh my God hi.**

**I'm alive, biatches. Pleased to see me? XD**

**This was an idea I came up with about a week ago, and it wouldn't leave my mind so I typed it up **_**without even a starting draft**_** ooooh…**

**It's really weird and prolly sucks ass but I'm currently out of fucks to give so I'm posting it anyway.**

**So yeah I had to write about TaruToro because I had so much writing that oneshot a while back that I had to write some more. It's a dorky and awkward pairing, and I thought I'd increase the awkwardness by making Tororo a chick.**

**Should this be a chapter story? Give me your thoughts :3**


	2. Sunflower Seeds

"I'm going to die of boredom!" Taruru whinged, fiddling with a loose thread on his chair in frustration. He and the rest of the platoon had returned to Keron to log some more vital information about the Pokopenians and other alien species into the ship's database. It was a job for Tororo only. It wouldn't take _that_ long, but two hours felt like a day to the energetic frog.

"Shut up, kid" Zoruru grunted, not even bothering to look at him. Taruru sighed and stared out of the window. There wasn't much to look at outside, and the building they were in was bizarrely right in front of a pier. Not a likely place for top secret data to be, not many hackers would think of coming _here_ first. What he could see was another office building, an old pub that had long been closed and shop full of fishing supplies.

Fishing supplies?

"Hey Zoruru, wanna drown some space worms?" Taruru asked, quieter this time.

"What? No, just stay put. You should have brought a manga or something"

Taruru huffed childishly and changed the way his legs were folded. He stared across the room at Tororo, who was busy typing away at both her own laptop and a government owned one. She looked tired, but utterly focussed on her work, so Taruru didn't bother to disturb her. Glancing to his right, he could see that Pururu and Garuru were each absorbed in their own stacks of paper work. Taruru felt a brief pang of envy for Zoruru's ability to just blank his mind and meditate in silence for hours.

Suddenly, he stood, stretching his limbs. Everyone but Tororo looked up at him with either quizzical gazes or irritated glares.

"I'm sorry, but I need to go outside. I can't stay cooped up in here for another hour" Taruru said, quietly tucking his chair under the desk he was sat at.

"Don't wander too far from this building, ok?" Was all Pururu said before she got back to work, Garuru following suit. Zoruru only rolled his eye and went back into meditation. Taruru nodded with a relieved smile before leaving the room and silently as he could manage.

Walking along the promenade by the pier, Taruru happily breathed in the clean air and basked in the warm sunlight. It truly was a beautiful day, and he was glad he had been allowed to enjoy it. Further down the path, he spotted a small shop that sold mainly small food items like sandwiches and ice creams, but also contained other miscellaneous products, such as swimming gear, flowers and even kites. He decided to take a seat under the awning of the shop, and stared out at the gently lapping waves of the sea.

"Lovely day out, in't it?" came the voice of an older male, and after turning around to look for the source, Taruru found it was the middle aged frog who ran the shop.

"Oh yeah, it's great. I'm surprised there aren't more people milling around"

"We don't get to many people out 'ere on Saturdays, wudji believe"

Taruru nodded slowly, still taking in the lovely view. It had been a long time since he had actually sat still and just _enjoyed_ something like this. He realised he'd been missing out.

"Jus' you alone t'day, then?" the older frog asked.

"Ah, no. I'm actually here with my platoon, but I can't tell you why, it's confidential" Taruru explained.

"Fair enough, lad, fair enough" the man chuckled before retreating into the cool shade of his shop. Taruru smiled as the friendly old soul walked off, before sliding back into the plastic chair he was sat in and slowly drifting off…

* * *

"There you are"

Taruru blinked his tired eyelids lazily as he woke up, rubbing the sleep out of them so that he could see clearly. Stood before him was none other than Tororo, her laptop tucked under her arm and her free hand on her hip. The sun bounced off her side, making her seem to glow on the side nearest the sun. Taruru probably would have found it adorable if he hadn't been blinded by the sudden introduction of sunlight into his tired eyes.

"Huhn? Where are the others?" Taruru asked, suppressing a yawn, inadvertently causing his face to contort oddly. Tororo laughed at the sight before explaining.

"Pururu is looking for you in the opposite direction from here, and Garuru and Zoruru are back on the ship"

"Oh…" Taruru moved to get up, but did so too quickly, causing his head to throb and his sight to cloud momentarily. He also realised how dehydrated he was.

"Can I just grab a drink before we go?" He asked, rooting through his wallet to see if he had enough money for one.

"Knock yourself out" Tororo replied. Taruru promptly made his way to the front of the shop, placing some money on the counter.

"A soda please, keep the change" he requested before rubbing his eyes once more. The shop owner nodded with a smile and went to retrieve the carbonated beverage. On his way back to Taruru, he spotted Tororo, who was waiting for him outside.

"She on yer platoon?" He asked, gesturing to her as he handed the Taruru the drink. "She's a little cutie in't she?"

"Yes. I-I mean, yes, she's in my platoon, not, you know, the other thing you said…"

The shop owner chuckled to himself, before pulling something from the side of the counter. Taruru raised an eyebrow as the man handed him a single wrapped Pokopenian sunflower.

"You have jus' enough fer this with the little extra ya let me have. Why not treat her?" He grinned, walking into the back of the shop before Taruru could reject it. Looking down at the yellow flower, he sighed and left the shop. On the way out, he noticed that Tororo had sat down. Now that he had a proper look at her, she looked exhausted. He looked at the flower in his hand, and then back to Tororo. He smiled before plopping down in the seat next to her. He took hold of her hand and opened it, placing the sunflower into her open palm. Tororo looked at it for a moment before looking to Taruru in confusion.

"What's this for?"

"You looked tired. You've been working hard, so I thought I'd get it for you" Taruru smiled patting her back gently with an appreciative smile.

"Er… thanks, I guess…" She said, before looking away to hide the slight blush that had formed on her cheeks. Flowers weren't her thing, but it was the thought that counted…

"Ah, you found him"

Taruru and Tororo raised their heads to see Pururu walking towards them.

"We should get back to the ship. Come on, you two" She smiled before turning around and walking the way she came, Taruru and Tororo following close behind. The salmon hacker hastily hid the flower behind her back in an attempt to hide it from Pururu's view. If she saw it, she might… _assume_ something.

* * *

Back on the ship, Tororo went straight to work, duplicating files and encoding the extra data. Pururu and Taruru had wandered off, but she could tell that Zoruru was close by. She didn't do or say anything to suggest that she'd noticed him, and instead continued to work. Every so often, she glanced at the sun flower laid on the desk next to her. She didn't know much about them, they were a Pokopenian plant after all, but now she was curious. She opened up a browser window and quickly looked it up. A flower that always faces the sun. Strange. Looking further into it, she found that they were a Chinese symbol of intelligence, long life, luck, future success, and happiness. Did Taruru know this? If so, is that why he gave it to her? She shook her head. He couldn't have known that, could he? It was just a random gift he bought for her with loose change…

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a roof panel sliding open. Zoruru had finally decided to come out, then.

Landing almost silently, he moved closer until he was stood beside her. Saying nothing, he picked up the sunflower and gently examined it.

"Pretty" He mused.

"I guess so. Taruru gave it to me" Tororo mumbled. As expected, she felt Zoruru's piercing gaze shift to her.

"Oh?"

"He said that I had worked hard all day and that I looked tired, so he randomly bought it for me"

"Right…"

Gazing at it for a while longer, Zoruru placed the flower back where he found it. He peered over Tororo's shoulder at her laptop screen.

"How much longer will you be working on that?" He asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Like, two or three more hours, why?"

Zoruru pulled Tororo's office chair away from her desk, her hands stayed suspended where they were in confusion as Zoruru wheeled her to the other side of the room, by her bed.

"Zoruru?"

"You need rest. I won't allow you to make yourself ill just to get some work done. It can wait, for tonight" He said gently, yet firmly.

"You aren't my mother, Zoruru" Tororo mumbled.

"No, but I've made it my duty to protect you and make sure you stay healthy. I care about you, you know" Zoruru pressed more insistently. Tororo smiled warmly at his kind words before nodding and getting off her chair.

"All right, I'll turn in for the night" She relented, making her way to her laptop, saving her work and shutting it down "I'll see you tomorrow scraps"

Zoruru nodded, satisfied, before leaving the room. Tororo sighed and made her way to her bed, placing the sunflower she had unconsciously picked up on her bedside table. Turning off the main room lights, she lay down, staring blankly at the sunflower, bathed in the dim artificial light of her lamp. Eventually she reached out and turned it off, allowing herself to gently brush the soft petals of the flower as she drew her hand back. She turned over and frowned to herself. Why was she suddenly so curious about the reason Taruru bought her the flower? He always randomly bought stuff if something caught his eye, either for himself or someone else. This was just a measly flower. Sighing, she made a mental note to look too deep into the meaning of things. She was a scientist, not a philosopher…

**A/N**

**This chapter idea came to me just before I went to bed last night, so I typed most of it late at night and completed the rest bit by bit throughout the day. It's a very relaxed way of writing, but I can't decide if I like the results yet.**

**This story is quite random, the chapters are more like none linear episodes than a straight out story (maybe because I'm making it up as I go XD) But each chapter is in a chronological order, just not necessarily close to each other (this would be about a month after the last chapter, I'd say)**

**There won't be any actual ZoruToro in this, Zoruru is more like an over protective older brother in this fic. And if you're curious, I imagined the shop keeper to have a very exaggerated Lancastrian accent.**

**Long A/N is long, I'll shut up now XP**


	3. Hips Don't Lie

Taruru tiptoed down the hallway as quietly as he possibly could. He was planning to spy on Tororo. Not in a perverted way, He just wanted to see what she was up to.

Quite recently, Tororo had started to retreat into her room for about an hour once a week, and then always disappearing for a similar time frame at a specific time the next day. She hadn't told anyone about what she was doing or where she was going, and the one time it was brought up she quickly changed the subject.

Taruru was determined to find out her secret, regardless if it was actually of any interest or not. His back to the wall, he crept towards the door to Tororo's room, noting that as he got closer he could feel very slight, rhythmic rumbles in the floor. What on earth was she doing in there?

Trying the door handle, he was very surprised to find that it was unlocked, and he slowly pushed it open. What he saw was… unexpected.

Loud Latin style pop music was playing, and in the middle of the room, which had been cleared out, Tororo was… dancing? It was a fitness type of dance, the ones Taruru had seen on TV a couple of times. The salmon hacker was concentrating hard, obviously putting a lot of effort into what she was doing… until, of course, she noticed the not so inconspicuous blue frog peering at her from around the door. She screeched and slammed the off button on her stereo.

"WHAT ARE DOING HERE?!" She roared, her face bright crimson. Taruru jolted back a second.

"S-sorry! I didn't… please don't hurt me!" He stammered, hiding behind his hands. Taruru glared at him for a few moments before groaning in embarrassment and sitting on her bed.

"I thought I _locked_ that door…" She mumbled, head in her hands. Taruru looked up from his spot at the door, before standing up and closing the door behind him.

"Uh… what… _was_ that, exactly?" he asked, trying not to make her any more angry or embarrassed than she already was. She looked up at him with a deep frown for a minute.

"Tell no-one" She hissed. Taruru nodded his head quickly. She sighed.

"I've noticed that my… weight… has become a bit of a problem. So a couple of weeks ago, I took up 'Zumba'" she explained, cheeks still burning. Taruru tilted his head to the side.

"Zumba? What's that?"

"It's a type of fitness programme founded by Columbian Pokopenians in the 90s. it's inspired by various types of dance and aerobics. It wasn't introduced on Keron until recently. When I heard about it… well, I wanted to try it. The only thing to lose is my love handles" She explained, pinching at the loose skin on her hip with a sad sigh.

"I didn't think you were that fat, really" Taruru stated. Tororo resisted a smile at the indirect compliment.

"That's the whole point of the programme, dumb ass. I'd like to think it's working" She said.

"So THAT'S where you've been going these past few weeks…" Taruru mused.

"Yep. It's my fourth session tomorrow" Tororo smiled, before frowning again.

"May I remind you _not_ to tell anyone about this? You are literally the only one who knows. If you _do_ say something, I will make it my mission to make your life a misery, got that?" She hissed. Taruru seemed taken aback.

"O-of course I won't tell anyone! Your secret's safe with me!" He beamed, pointing at his chest with his thumb.

"Somehow I doubt that…" Tororo mumbled under her breath.

* * *

The next day, Tororo left at the usual time, bidding her platoon members a temporary farewell as she closed the door behind her. Little did she know, Taruru had actually followed her out, and was now stealthily tailing her, wanting to know just what these 'Zumba' sessions were actually like. He followed her into the HQ gym, making use of the easy hiding spots behind shelves of sporting equipment. He watched her queue up in a small waiting area outside another room, paying a small fee and entering. Taruru snuck in to the waiting area and perched on one of the seats peering into the other room through a large window in the side. He hoped to god that Tororo wouldn't catch him peeking in. There were many women of all different ages and body types, and she was right near the other side of the room, so she probably wouldn't see him… he hoped.

The frog that appeared to be in charge made her way to the front of the room, which, from where Taruru was sitting, was to his right. Starting the music, the routine began. Taruru was quite stunned at how instant it was, there was no warning or instruction, just many Keronians who seemed to just _know_ what they were doing dancing in relatively perfect time. He focussed on Tororo at the back. She was surprisingly good at it, but still stopped every now and then when she got to an unfamiliar move. Taruru smiled, secretly proud of her, but not really sure why.

The session lasted for about an hour, the participants performing a warm down exercise before gathering their things. Taruru stood up and stretched his arms, forgetting he was right in front of the window, where Tororo could now clearly see him. Her face instantly went completely scarlet before she quickly marched towards him. Taruru froze, aware that he had messed up. Tororo came into the waiting room, calmly told the organiser of the programme that she would like a session next week, and then grabbed Taruru by his hat flap and dragged him outside.

"I. AM. GOING. TO. KILL. YOU." She growled as she dragged him through the building.

"I'm s-sorry Tororo, please don't hurt me!" Taruru stammered, genuinely worried that he was going to get his arse handed to him. Reaching a quiet path outside of the gym, Tororo whipped around and gave Taruru a glare that promised death.

"Tororo, please! I'm Sorry! I was curious, I wanted to see what a Zumba session was like! Please forgive me, I'm sorry, I'M TO YOUNG TO DIE!" Taruru garbled before receiving a small, yet hard slap from the tadpole before him.

"Shut up!" She hissed. They stared each other down for a while, before Tororo loosened her grip on Taruru's hat flap and let go, allowing him to stand up to his full height again.

"You were curious, hmm? Well if that's the case, you can do it with me" Tororo spoke monotonously.

"W-what?" Taruru asked, surprised.

"You heard me. Starting next week, you are going to practice with me and attend the sessions with me"

"B-but I'll be the only dude there!" Tororo grinned at him.

"I know"

* * *

Wearing a sweatband and carrying a bottle of water, Taruru made his way to Tororo's room. She had not been joking when she told him to join her in Zumba. Knocking on the door timidly, it was opened and he made his way inside. Tororo stared at him for a moment.

"…What?"

"Did you walk through the ship with that on?" Tororo asked, pointing to the sweatband on his head.

"Yeah… why?"

"This is supposed to be a _secret_. THAT is why!" Tororo hissed, before shaking her head and locking the door. She made her way to the front of the room, and leaned over the stereo to turn it on.

"You'll have to follow my lead"

"O-okay…"

The music started; a fairly quick beat with a distinct samba feel. Tororo started off with a few small, but quick steps, which Taruru followed. They then swiftly moved into wide arm movements, alternating from sideways jabs to angled ones. This was clearly just a warm up, but Taruru was already finding it hard to keep up. He could tell it was going to be a long day, and this was just a bit of practice… what would it be like to try the real thing?

* * *

The next day, Taruru accompanied Tororo to the gym. Tororo explained to the registrar that Taruru would be joining her for the session, and handed over enough money to pay for the both of them. They went inside the main room and moved to the back corner, where Tororo had been dancing last time.

"Why'd you choose this spot?" Taruru asked curiously. Tororo didn't answer straight away, looking to the side with a look of humiliation.

"I don't want people to see me while I do this. I… wobble…" Tororo whispered. Taruru let out a loud puff of air.

"Pssh. No you don't. I watched you the whole time last week, and I didn't notice anything like that. You aren't as fat as you think you are Tororo, you're probably around the perfect weight" Taruru grinned, before placing his water bottle in the corner and stretching his arms. Tororo allowed herself to blush at Taruru's kind words before doing the same.

The same woman from last week moved to the front of the class and switched on the music, immediately launching into the routine Tororo had tried to teach him a bit of the day prior. Taruru copied the moves confidently, finding that is was actually quite a lot of fun. He glanced to the side every now and then, grinning at how determined Tororo looked, and how good she was with the multitude of quickly transitioned moves. Taruru wasn't even really aware that he was the only male in the class until the warm down, which was to a song by the Pokopenian singer Madonna, and included a lot of fluttery hand movements. When the session was over Taruru all but collapsed to the floor and downed the last of his water, swallowing the last drop with a sigh.

"Ha! That was loads of fun!" He quipped, a cocky grin on his face. Tororo, who was sat by him finishing off her drink, nodded in agreement.

As they left the building, Tororo turned to Taruru.

"Thanks for doing this with me today. You were… a good sport…" She admitted.

"No problem Tororo. I'm sorry for spying on you last week. I just get curious when you're not around" He said. He suddenly realised how odd that sounded, but did nothing to correct himself.

"You don't have to come with me again. That was just me punishing you, pu pu" Tororo said, poking her tongue out at him. Taruru shook his head.

"No, I _want_ to come with you. You seemed more confident now that you had a partner to dance with. Especially one that's worse at it than you" Taruru pointed out, patting Tororo's shoulder with a goofy grin as they made their way back to their ship in the docking bay.

Tororo didn't show it, but she was secretly overjoyed that Taruru would be with her until she finished her target of ten sessions. Having a friend beside her was sure to help her get better, she just knew it.

* * *

Later that day, Zoruru paid a visit to Tororo.

"Hey Zoruru, sit down I'll be there in a sec" said Tororo as the cyborg assassin let himself in. Zoruru nodded, even though she wasn't looking at him, and took a seat on the edge of her bed. Tororo soon joined him.

"So what's up?" she asked, taking a bite out of a burger she happened to have with her. She decided that she deserved one after each session she did, as a reward.

"I didn't know you attended fitness classes. How long have you done that for?" Zoruru asked. Tororo slowly turned her head towards Zoruru.

"What did you say?" she asked darkly.

"You know… this 'Zumba' thing you've been doing…"

"He told you, didn't he?" She growled, getting ready to find and destroy Taruru for breaking his promise.

"Not at all," Zoruru hummed. "I just noticed that Taruru went missing at the same time you usually do last week, so this week I decided to follow him"

Tororo sighed and face palmed.

"You are so over protective, you know that?" She sighed. Zoruru hung his head slightly.

"Sorry Tororo, I can't help but worry. You're the most important thing to me."

Tororo smiled exasperatedly.

"I know, Zoruru. You tell me that all the time. Come on, you knew Taruru wouldn't be able to hurt me, we're in headquarters, even if he _did_ try something, he wouldn't get away with it"

"I know. Why did Taruru start attending with you anyway?" Zoruru asked curiously. Tororo chuckled.

"He caught me practicing in my room the other day, and then he got curious, so he followed me to my session the following day. I decided to spare his life and instead punish him by making him attend my classes with me, pu pu pu!" Zoruru laughed slightly at Tororo's explanation.

"Surely it would have been _kinder_ to kill him" He chuckled, before lightly patting Tororo on the head.

"I'll leave you to yourself then. I'll see you tomorrow"

"Seeya Scraps" Tororo smiled as Zoruru left the room. She sat there for a minute before drifting into her thoughts. For some reason, she was _really_ looking forward to her next Zumba session…

**A/N**

**The third chapter already, dear god.**

**This really is just a bunch of chronological one shots that will eventually lead to an ending. XD**

**I started writing this yesterday, after my own Zumba session(it was my fourth one, too XD) I was stuck for ideas and halfway through I decided to write about something I happen to have done myself XD I don't do zumba to lose weight (If I lose any more I'll turn inside out, I just can't put weight on XD) I do it to get fit and improve my general mood, and I think it's a lot of fun, even if it is a bit girly ^^ (that's probably why my class is all women. Men **_**can**_** take part, but not many do XD)**

**I have a feeling that every one of these chapters is going to be as odd as the first three XD**


	4. Security Blanket

The keys clacked noisily as the Garuru platoon's intelligence officer worked quickly on her keyboard. The noise was almost amplified by the fact that the room was silent, only the muted sounds of explosions and gunfire were audible past the thick walls and windows of the darkened space ship.

Tororo hated being left in the ship alone during a battle. Sure, she wasn't any good at physical combat, sharp shooting or anything like that. She was weak, and could only use computers, so she was always ordered to stay on the ship. Not that she had a problem with it, no, she liked being safe and being able to help via computer hacking and the like… it was just the _worry_. While she was in here, although she had trackers and direct communication links to her whole team, she couldn't see any of them, and she hated it.

Today was the fifth of an eight day mission in which provisions needed to be dropped in on Keronian troops who were fighting on a distant planet by the name of 'Koostuu' . Tororo also had to report to and from the troops to headquarters, and Pururu had to help out the injured. Zoruru, Garuru and Taruru had to make sure this could be carried out without disruption from enemy soldiers, the 'body guards' in the operation. The ship got targeted a lot, so all she could ever hear outside were her team parrying the enemy's blows. They had been doing a pretty good job, not one of them had really received any major injury.

Well, until now.

There was a deafening smash followed by the sound of glass scattering everywhere and a heavy thud. Tororo whipped her head around, praying it wasn't a bomb, and wiped her steamed up glasses so she could see clearer. The thing that had crashed through the window was not or a bomb, or any other weapon – it was the unconscious form of Taruru. Tororo squeaked uncharacteristically before running over to the blue frog on the floor. He wasn't badly wounded – only a few cuts and scratches from the glass and a black mark at the top right of his hat, signalling that he had been skimmed by a laser, not enough to really wound him, but enough to graze his head and knock him out. Tororo briefly thought about calling Pururu, but knew that would not be a good idea, as she was busy on the planet's surface, so she simply sent a brief message to Garuru detailing what had happened to Taruru and the ship before dragging him in to one of Pururu's small medical bays that were dotted around the ship encase of an injury that meant the patient could not be moved far, and Tororo was infinitely thankful for this.

After a short struggle, Tororo managed to lift the younger frog onto one of the medical beds, and carried out some basic first aid before going back into the control room she had been in moments before and retrieving her laptop. She had work to do, but she refused to leave Taruru alone in the medical room without supervision. There was a possibility that something bad could happen to him and Tororo didn't want to risk that.

* * *

Tororo woke up from her spot next to the bed Taruru was lay on. She noted he was still out cold, and briefly wondered if he had a concussion… there was no way someone with as much energy as Taruru would stay in bed through one day to the next, even if he _was_ injured. She sent a message about it to Pururu before opening her laptop to continue her work from the day before. However, she just couldn't seem to concentrate, glancing worriedly at Taruru every so often until she was eventually just staring at him. Why was she so worried? Zoruru had come back from fights with much worse injuries (Hey, she'd been the one to give him his armour side... it was probably the only time she'd ever been worried about someone's condition before now). Did she not have any faith in him as a fighter? She shook her head. Taruru was an amazing fighter; she had no doubt in her mind about that. Then why was she so nervous about Taruru simply being knocked out? He wasn't even actually injured!

She looked back at her laptop, before huffing and pushing it away, knowing she wasn't going to get anything done, and moved her chair closer to Taruru's bedside. She grabbed hold of one of his shoulders and shook it roughly.

"Taruru" She muttered, not bothering to speak up as she assumed he wouldn't hear her anyway. He did nothing except snuffle slightly and fractionally altar the angle he was lay in. It was like he was just sleeping normally. She shook him again, repeating his name, only a little louder. Tororo jumped as Taruru let out an annoyed groan, before whipping his arm up, wrapping it around Tororo's shoulders and pinning her to his chest. She yelped quietly as he did it, and frowned into his shoulder.

"Let go" She managed to mutter through his choke hold. When she got no reaction, she glanced up only to find that Taruru was still sound asleep. So he was just dreaming. She sighed with relief, before finally realising just what kind of position she was in. She flushed slightly red and attempted to slide out of his grasp, only for it to tighten.

"Noooo…" Taruru moaned quietly in his sleep, using his other arm to crush Tororo's face further into his chest. What did he think she was, a teddy bear?

Tororo began to squirm uncomfortably. Why did Taruru have to be so strong?

Oh yeah, that's kind of his job.

Tororo cursed the fact that Keronians had such large heads, as it was now impossible to slide out of her friend's grasp. She struggled for a while longer before realising that if she relaxed, Taruru would probably relax his grip on her, allowing her to escape, so she did just that, despite how awkward it was. Taruru made a strange noise of approval in his sleep, a look of victory spreading over his face. So was that supposed to have been a head lock? Tororo was only glad he wasn't conscious enough to actually injure her with a move like that.

Despite Taruru's victorious expression, his grip on her only lessened to the point where it was no longer uncomfortable, but still impossible to escape from. Tororo decided with a heavy sigh that the only option was to wait. And wait she did. Until she fell asleep.

* * *

Taruru awoke with a comfortable, warm feeling in his chest, and a slightly dull pain over most of his limbs. It took him a while of basking in this blank state of mind before his thoughts cleared and he remembered what happened. He quickly opened his eyes and glanced around.

Was he… dead?

"Am I in heaven?" He asked in almost a whisper.

He suddenly felt the warmth on his chest shift. Looking down, he was met with the exasperated gaze of Tororo. He suddenly realised he was holding her very close to him, but was too confused to let go.

"What a weird thing to ask" Tororo yawned. It only took Taruru a second to put two and two together.

"No! I didn't mean _that_! I honestly thought I was dead or something!" He cried, his face beginning to redden as he finally came to his senses and released her from his crushing embrace. Tororo stood up, and brushed herself off. She tilted her head curiously in Taruru's direction.

"You remember what happened?"

"Yes… There was this ship… and enemy ship… and something shot out of it and exploded, I just remember flying backwards and then everything went black" He explained before slowly sitting up and cautiously moving his limbs.

"I don't feel much pain, though. Besides the ache of having obviously hit something as I was blown back…"

"Well, you don't _look_ injured to me, but I wouldn't move too much until Pururu comes back" Tororo instructed, before hesitantly smiling at her friend.

"I'm really glad you woke up"

Taruru's face reddened, touched by her concern, but that didn't stop him from giving his usual smart ass reply.

"Aw, you're so worried about me… Could you be _falling_ for me?" He said in the most obnoxiously exaggerated way possible. He promptly received a hard medical pillow to the face.

"Don't push your luck, flecks. You're lucky I even bothered to drag you into this room" Tororo spat, though her face was still red.

"Then why were you snuggled up to me?" Taruru grinned, poking his tongue out.

"Because you gave me a headlock in your sleep, Rambo" Tororo drawled sarcastically. Taruru rolled his eyes and lay back down, a small smirk still in place before he eventually let it drop.

"Thank you for caring for me, Tororo" He muttered quietly before rolling over so he wasn't facing her and that she couldn't see him blush.

**A/N**

**Wow, there's barely any dialogue in this one, and that's coming from someone who writes so much dialogue I might as well call my stories scripts XD**

**Most of the was written ate in the afternoon, after Zumba (Zumba seems to get my creative juices flowing *eyebrow wiggle*) and it is currently about half ten at night where I am (and I usually stop functioning bang on ten XD) so if this seems a little weird nearer the end, that would be why.**

**I had the idea for the beginning of this chapter for a few days now, and only just managed to think of the rest of it, though that may just be my tired ass head spewing nonsense into the fic XD**

**I'm sure I had something else to say, but my bed is calling me and I do love my bed… so goodnight, good morning, good day good afternoon, whatever time it is where you are :3 **

**(PS, I actually haven't proof read this chapter so if the spelling and/or grammar is horrifyingly atrocious that is why XD)**

**(PPS, If you're wondering where I got the name for the planet, 'Koostuu' is a Finnish word meaning 'Made Up' XD)**


	5. My Defender

"Oh _yay,_ it looks like we're here." Tororo drawled sarcastically as the ship stopped, hovering over the Hinata house.

"Why exactly are we here again, Leader?" Zoruru mumbled, clearly as frustrated as Tororo was about the situation.

"We're gathering the reports from the Keroro platoon" Garuru explained to his unimpressed looking comrades. "…And also because I say so" he added with a slight grin as he walked away, towards the teleporter, the others following suit. Standing in a circle, Tororo reluctantly made the commands necessary for the teleportation.

"Beam me down, Scotty!" Taruru piped happily.

"No" Tororo groaned, face palming at the Star Trek reference before they began the slow descent toward the Pokopenian household.

Knocking on the front door awkwardly, Garuru stood just in front of the rest of his team. The eldest child of the Hinata family– Natsumi – answered the door, looking side to side at first before looking down, clearly used to frequent visits from the smaller alien species.

"Giroro's brother!"

"Yes… I have business with the Keroro platoon, may I enter?" Garuru explained.

"O-oh, ok…" she consented uncertainly, stepping aside for the intimidating older brother of her partner and his platoon.

Making their way down to the door in the basement, Garuru opened the door to find that the platoon was waiting around a table in Keroro's room, rather than down in the base. The green leader of the Pokopen invasion unit rose out of his seat and approached the Garuru platoon, snapping into a respectful salute.

"Welcome, Garuru platoon" He grinned, as the rest of his own platoon rose and saluted.

* * *

Taruru yawned loudly, stretched and adjusted his sitting position for the millionth time in two and half hours. He didn't understand why the entire platoon needed to be there when it was just Garuru and Keroro filling out a mountain of papers (it turned out Keroro HADN'T done his homework, to the other platoon leader's annoyance), literally no one else from either platoon had anything to do.

"I'm watching you, Sergeant Major" Zoruru hissed suddenly, prompting Taruru to turn his head towards they yellow hacker. Kururu was sat with a hand up to his mouth, cackling menacingly, as usual. Whatever he was doing previously, Taruru had obviously missed it. He glanced to Tororo, who had the unlucky seat next to her rival. She was frowning quite obviously, looking rather annoyed at the curry obsessed scientist beside her. She soon caught Taruru watching her, so he smiled at her reassuringly. Her frown softened slightly, but otherwise she looked as if she hadn't noticed him. Taruru groaned in boredom and laid his head on the desk.

"Shut up, Taruru" Zoruru mumbled. Taruru scoffed at him. He suddenly noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked back at Kururu and Tororo. The older of the two had begun repeatedly prodding the salmon hacker, now that Zoruru's attention had been diverted to the light blue frog. Taruru frowned at this, but he knew that this was pretty normal, and that Tororo would hit back soon enough. It was something interesting to watch, anyway.

"Fuck off, Kururu" Tororo huffed, swatting Kururu's hand away, only for it to come right back and continue prodding her. This continued for a while until Zoruru noticed again, and growled a warning at the Yellow scientist.

"Oh _do_ calm down, Lance Corporal. It's only a bit of fun, kuku!" Kururu drawled. "You don't mind, do you dear?" Kururu added, running a hand down Tororo's arm, causing her to shudder and slide away from him.

"_Kururu!_" She hissed angrily.

"Quiet down" Came the stern voice of Garuru, prompting both the scientists to sit still and shut up. With nothing left to entertain him, Taruru closed his eyes and attempted to sleep through the rest of this _impossibly boring _meeting.

It didn't last.

An angry grunt caught Taruru's attention, and he opened his eyes once again to see Tororo glaring daggers at her rival, who held his hand back with a grin, obviously having had it slapped away again.

"Ku ku ku!"

"Stop touching me, old man!"

Taruru heard the sound of metal shifting. Zoruru had also caught on, obviously.

"I mean it Kururu. Leave her alone" Zoruru growled. Kururu only shrugged in response. He seemed to wait a while before his hand crept towards Tororo again, a grin that said he knew how infuriating he was being forming on his otherwise unreadable face. Taruru was really starting to get quite angry now. This time when he started prodding her again, Tororo didn't react, probably in an attempt to bore Kururu out of continuing. He kept at it though, his pokes slowly turning into perverted strokes. Clearly he was out for a reaction. He didn't expect the one he got, however.

There was a loud thwack as a blue fist had connected with his jaw, knocked onto the floor by his seat. He looked up, genuinely rather shocked, to see that it was actually Taruru that had climbed onto the table and punched him. He looked furious, which confused the yellow hacker slightly, as the blue frog hadn't seemed bothered at all by what he was doing. He would probably be annoyed at the little upstart if he hadn't been so impressed.

All the attention in the room was now directed at this new fiasco.

"She told you to stop touching her" Taruru told Kururu in a surprisingly level tone. Kururu smirked a little, holding back a wince at the pain shooting through his face.

"Oh?" Was all he said. Taruru looked as though he was going to lose it for a second before his face turned unexpectedly neutral.

"If you touch her again, I won't hesitate to _end you_" He growled. Kururu was genuinely a little unnerved.

"Back off, Private" Garuru spoke up from the end of the table. Taruru seemed to snap out of it, finally noticing the ten sets of eyes upon him. His face reddened in embarrassment.

"I-I'm so sorry, sir…" he muttered as he sat back down. Sitting opposite him, Zoruru had his eyebrows raised. He was genuinely surprised, and actually felt strangely _proud_ of the blue frog for what he had just done.

Silence soon returned to the room, the only movement being Kururu leaving the room to find an ice pack, and the two platoon leaders completing the last of the paper work.

* * *

Beaming back up to the Garuru Platoon's ship, minus Pururu, who was staying back with the Keroro platoon for her tri monthly shift change, Taruru hung his head nervously, anticipating the scolding he would get from his leader.

Or would he?

Garuru immediately retreated to his office, probably to contact headquarters about the documents he was finally able to obtain from the dopey leader of the Keroro platoon. Finally looking back up, he sighed in relief and was about to retreat to his own room to 'reflect' on what he'd done, when he suddenly felt someone give him a pat on the head.

"Good job today, kid" Zoruru murmured in what sounded like an almost grateful way before walking off, leaving Taruru with his jaw hanging open.

"Did Zoruru just _compliment _me?"

He didn't have much time to be _utterly amazed_ by the cyborgs uncharacteristically friendly behaviour, as he felt a tug on his arm. He turned to face the salmon hacker who had caught his attention. She was staring at the floor shyly.

"Taruru… thank you… for sticking up for me earlier…" she looked up and faced him. "Really. Thank you so much"

Taruru blushed a little.

"Um… well it was no problem…" he mumbled.

"Taruru, you broke his _face_. I've always wanted to do that! Pu pu pu!" Taruru couldn't help but smirk a little at that.

"Well, anyway. I'm really thankful." Tororo repeated, hesitating a little before leaning up and planting a very light kiss to the blue frog's cheek before quickly escaping down the hall, hiding her blush. Taruru just gawped and put a hand up to his cheek.

"S-she just _kissed_ me!" He squeaked. He was beginning to wonder if this day was actually happening, or if it was some kind of dream. An admittedly _good_ one…

**A/N**

**Oh my lord what is this chapter *gags***

**This was written at several different time during the day, at first having a metal soundtrack, then a soundtrack of rly shit songs (I was removing loads of songs that I don't like from my ipod) and then a radio show containing old yet **_**amazing**_** tracks from Daniel Bedingfield and Britney Spears early years (don't judge meeee), so yes, it was a rather varied and distracting soundtrack to write this weird ass chapter to.**

**I'm so bad at writing Kururu omg (I'm not good at writing in character anyway (especially Garuru earlier on in this chapter pffft) but janadnkdf Kururu my god)**

**I hope this chapter isn't **_**too**_** crap. I've actually been ill for a couple of weeks and have missed a couple of Zumba lessons consequently (the source of my inspiration XD)**


	6. Written in the Stars

"You're sending her out in the woods _alone_?" Zoruru hissed at Garuru, who was currently disassembling and reassembling his artillery.

HQ had informed them of a minor mission that involved taking supplies to a wooden hut in the middle of a thick forest on Keron. The reason his platoon had been asked to do it was because the forest in question was going to become a warzone the day after, as enemy troops followed Keronian troops as they retreated to retrieve the supplies. The hut had been abandoned long ago and it was agreed that the five platoons on the front lines would meet there to gather ammunition, food and fuel.

The purple frog glanced up at his subordinate.

"She's not going to be alone, Zoruru, I'm sending Taruru along with her to be her body guard" He explained, totally expecting the reddened face of the angry lance corporal.

"I won't allow it! I don't trust Taruru with Tororo at all!" Zoruru growled. "You should send _me_. You can guarantee her protection if I go!"

Garuru shook his head.

"It's a simple task, Zoruru, they'll be fine"

"But-"

"Tororo and Taruru are young, and have much to learn. They need to be able to learn how to cope with conditions and deadlines like this. They shouldn't very well be in the military if they can't handle an easy task like this" Garuru pointed out. He turned to fully face the assassin.

"Consider this a test of trust. If you give Taruru a chance to prove himself, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised" he added. Zoruru bit back an objection and nodded begrudgingly. He glanced over at the other end of the ship to where Tororo was struggling to squeeze an extra dozen donuts into a rucksack. Zoruru rolled his eye and approached her.

"You won't even be gone a whole _day_. You don't _need_ that many snacks" Zoruru chuckled, swiping a donut away and inspecting the colourful icing.

"Hey!" Tororo cried as she reached up for it. "Give it back, Scraps!"

"How about no" Zoruru hummed playfully, twirling the sticky treat around his metal finger, lifting it higher as Tororo got closer to it.

"But I _need_ it…" Tororo whined.

"I'll have it!" Came the voice of Taruru as he entered the room, grabbing the donut and practically swallowing it whole. Zoruru frowned at him.

"Taruruuuuu" Tororo whinged.

"Give it back" she added, jokily, holding her hand out.

"Alright then, open wide" grinned Taruru as he made a show of attempting to regurgitate it into her open palm.

"Gross, Taruru! Pu Pu Pu!" Tororo chuckled as Taruru began to actually choke now.

"Idiot" Zoruru huffed.

Taruru ceased his coughing and gave an exaggerated thumbs up.

"Are you nearly ready, guys?" Called Pururu from the other end of the room. The three frogs whipped their heads around simultaneously, prompting a light chuckle from the chief medic.

"Come on, you two, this needs to get done" She pressed, with an exasperated smile that said 'just get on with it'. Taruru nodded and without hesitating, lifted Tororo's overflowing bag onto his back.

"Taruru, what are you doing? You don't have to carry my bag" Tororo asked, raising an eye ridge.

"I'm not letting you break your back, even if it is all the crap YOU packed" Taruru replied, poking his tongue out. He quickly walked off before Tororo could complain; leaving the salmon tadpole to fold her arms and shake her head at his stubbornness. Well, at least chivalry wasn't dead.

Zoruru watched Tororo run off behind Taruru with a frown. He didn't like how close she was getting to the blue frog.

"What's up with the face, Zoruru?" Pururu asked with a gentle, yet amused smile. She turned just in time to catch Tororo and Taruru leaving the room together. "Those two are getting close, aren't they?" She smiled. Zoruru only replied with a frustrated puff of air.

"Oh no… are you _jealous_ of Taruru?" Pururu drawled with a cheeky grin. Zoruru's face went red and he glared at her.

"Stop jumping to such weird conclusions, medic" He snapped "I just think he's a bad influence"

"You aren't her father, Zoruru"

They stood in silence for a bit; Pururu watching Zoruru's face carefully as he stared at the door the two young frogs just went through.

"You're afraid she'll spend more time with Taruru and less time with you" She stated suddenly. Zoruru glared at her and was going to protest, but thought better of it. She was spot on, after all.

"You don't need to be so protective of her, Zoruru. She's growing into a young woman, she doesn't need twenty four hour protection" Pururu explained gently "She can't be your baby forever"

Zoruru only nodded silently, as Pururu was stating nothing but the truth. No matter how many times she told him however, it wouldn't lessen his unease when he wasn't near the salmon tadpole. And he _still_ didn't trust Taruru. He just hoped Garuru was right, and the success of this mission would ease his hostile feelings towards his blue comrade.

* * *

"I'm bored" Taruru stated nonchalantly, as if being bored was in fact boring to him.

"I'm aware of that, Taruru" Tororo replied, having heard him repeat this line several times already. They had a map, but even with the most direct of routs, the trip was taking a long time.

"I wish we didn't have to walk" Tororo pouted, knowing full well it was all to do with their training. She looked up at Taruru, who was strolling along almost leisurely despite carrying her own rucksack _and_ the supplies they needed to deliver. Tororo only had the map, and she was feeling bad about it, but no matter how many times she asked to carry something, Taruru would wave her off. Both of them knew she had little to no physical strength, and that she would just drop everything after twenty minutes worth of walking out of fatigue, but she still worried that Taruru might hurt himself carrying so much stuff.

"That's it. We're having a snack break" She said suddenly, plonking down where she sat. Taruru turned to look at her briefly before sitting down next to her, shrugging the rucksack off his shoulders and placing the supply box on the floor. He breathed a sigh of relief and stretching, cracking his aching back and shoulders. He didn't seem too fussed, however, and simply opened the bag and took out some of the junk food Tororo had brought along with her. He handed her about four donuts, knowing that that was what she considered a snack, and tucked in to the healthier option of a Pokopenian chicken salad sandwich. Tororo stared at her food before taking a bite, looking back up at Taruru, who didn't seem the slightest bit tired.

"Taruru?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure you're ok with carrying everything? I feel really bad about making you carry all my stuff, and I don't want you to injure yourself" Tororo asked, her voice tinged with concern.

"Of course I am. I pretty much made you give me all that stuff. Besides, it's almost like a weight lifting challenge!" He grinned, raising his arms and flexing his surprisingly developed muscles.

"Plus, I can't have a tiny little thing like you get squashed under a bag twice your weight" He added, poking his tongue out. Tororo stared at him briefly.

"I'll just cram a ton of food to lighten your load, then" she quipped.

"I don't particularly want to deal with you vomiting everywhere, so four donuts is enough for now" He replied, standing up and putting the bag back on. Tororo watched him, wondering if he was stubborn or just too stupid to feel the strain.

They continued onwards for a while, hoping to get to the shack before dark, and it was getting late, though the sky wasn't too dark, as it was the start of spring. That didn't stop he chills from setting in. Tororo found herself wishing she'd brought some form of protective clothing instead of a mountain of her beloved junk food. For now, she would just have to make do with holding herself as she shivered slightly.

Taruru looked around at Tororo. He had heard her shaky breathing and noticed that she looked like she was freezing. He suddenly remembered something he'd stashed in the bag before Tororo got near it with her snacks.

"Hold on a moment" Taruru said as he took off the bag, set it on the ground and rooted around inside. Eventually, he pulled out a small fluffy blanket, and turned to Tororo, holding it out to her.

"Come here" he ordered. Tororo stared at the charcoal coloured blanket before glancing up to Taruru. He had a facial expression that told her not to argue, so she hesitantly approached him and allowed him to gently drape it around her.

"Better?" He asked. Tororo nodded, snuggling into the welcoming plushness of the blanket.

"But aren't you cold too?" She asked. As expected, he shook his head.

"Nope. That backpack is pretty much storing my own body heat and radiating it back to me" He chuckled before sliding said backpack back on again. Tororo raised an eye ridge, but decided it was best not to argue and simply nodded at him.

As they continued onward, it began to get gradually darker and darker, to the point where Tororo was gripping on to one of the straps on the side of the backpack and walking in line with Taruru so they wouldn't somehow lose each other in the darkness.

Eventually, they reached the shack, and the two of them breathed a sigh of relief. They then realised that the shack was illuminated from the inside. Were the troops already there? If so… the enemies could be close by. Taruru realised this almost as quickly as Tororo, so he grabbed her hand and sped up towards the shack, where they peered inside to see that the allied troops were in fact already there, though there were much less of them than they had expected. Tororo decided they should knock on the door and be _let_ in rather than to just waltz right in. After all, an enemy wouldn't bother to knock first. Hesitantly doing so, she was relieved when they were welcomed heartily, and allowed straight in to the comforting warmth of the shack. Handing over the goods, Tororo couldn't contain her curiosity.

"How come there are so few of you here?" She asked. The leader of the troop smiled, and explained that they had decided to divert the enemies by sending the majority of the troops in another direction, while a single platoon went to the shack to pick up the goods and bring them to the others. They wanted to ensure the safety of the two who had carried them all this way. He also insisted that they camp in the shack for the night, as it was too much to ask the tired duo to walk straight back the way they had come.

Making their way to the only other room in the shack (The platoon had insisted they stay hidden encase an enemy DID show up), Taruru and Tororo placed their stuff in a neat pile in the corner of the room, which was as equally empty as the first, before sitting together beneath the window, still a little too cold to sleep. Tororo seemed slightly dazed with fatigue, so Taruru simply stared out at the night sky, painted with a swath of glittering stars that were perfectly visible due to the lack of cloud cover. He watched them for a while, unaware that Tororo was doing the same thing until she suddenly stuck an arm out before him and pointed to a certain part of the sky.

"That's the Amatores constellation" She stated in a hushed whisper, as if she felt the need to be quiet at such a late hour "it's supposed to look like a couple of Keronians stood next to each other"

Taruru stared at the group of stars for a while before shaking his head.

"Looks more like a pair of Pokopenian breasts to me" He chuckled, receiving a light conk to the head from Tororo's fist.

"Shut up, now I can't look at it without a disturbing image in my head" She giggled under her breath. Taruru grinned before looking back out.

"Can you see any other constellations?" He asked, genuinely curious. Tororo squinted her eyes behind her glasses as she examined the sky she could see through the window.

"Two more. It's lucky the sky is so clear" She smiled before pointing at another part of the sky.

"That one is Familiaritas. I think it's supposed to look like a pair of arms shaking hands" She explained. Taruru took a minute to follow where she was pointing, before nodding, actually able to see the resemblance to a hand shake.

"And the other one?"

Tororo looked unsure as she pointed to the last one.

"I'm not a hundred per cent sure this is right, but I think that one is Jugum. Jugum is supposedly a circular shape but it looks a bit wonky from where I'm sitting so I might be wrong"

Taruru nodded before letting out a long yawn.

"I'm feeling the tiredness now" He chuckled quietly. He jumped slightly as he felt Tororo sidle up to him so they were pressed up together.

"There's only one blanket, right? I'm not letting you freeze to death" Tororo yawned as she passed half of the blanket to Taruru so he could pull it over himself. She had to snuggle up quite close so that they could both fit under the blanket, but Taruru never complained. He just moved his arm to make more room for her as his face went through several shades of red.

He decided against telling her that he actually _had_ brought two blankets.

**A/N**

**Longest chappie yet gaiz :3 Also, the most lines Garuru has had so far… he is rather mute in this story XD**

**(I normally wouldn't post on a college day, but I typed half of it up yesterday and was desperate to finish it XD**

**The weird bit with clingy big bro Zoruru at the start wasn't planned, it just sort of happened but I left it the way it was. (GiroDoro may be my OTP, but ZoruToro is by far my BroTP XD I can't resist giving them a close family like bond X3)**

**The ending was mushier than mashed potatoes left out in the rain (?) I decided to leave it there, because writing about them going all the way bac the next day would just be repetitive and tedious XD**

**The constellations are completely made up. I can't use the ones we know, they are on a planet squillions of miles from earth, so they would have different star signs. However, I still gave them latin names. In order, they translate as:**

**Amatores – Lovers**

**Familiaritas – Friendship, familiarity, intimacy**

**Jugum – Bond, Pair, twosome, match**

**(lol how coincidental that they all refer to romance *shot*)**


	7. There For Me

Slamming her fist on the table, Tororo violently pushed away from the desk she was using her computer on. She cursed at the sudden stinging pain in her hand, but ignored it as she stomped towards the door of her room.

"I'm so done… I'm s-so fucking done!" She whimpered under her breath as she forced her tears back. She wandered angrily around the ship until she found what she was looking for. Without so much as a pause, she threw open the door and went through it, just barely slamming it closed behind her.

* * *

Taruru was awoken from his sleep by the sound of repetitive clanking going up and down the halls, a sign that Zoruru was up and about. However, he normally didn't make this much noise, especially at 6am, so with a sleepy groan, the blue frog hauled himself out of bed and staggered tiredly into the hall, getting run over by Zoruru the second he stepped out of his room.

"Ow…"

"I don't have time for you, kid" Zoruru grumbled as he continued his frantic pacing. Taruru quickly scrambled to his feet to catch up to Zoruru.

"What's grinding your gears?" Taruru asked, grinning slightly at the unintentional pun when he noticed it. Zoruru rolled his eye and glared at him.

"If you _must_ know, Tororo has gone missing and I can't find her anywhere"

Taruru's eyes widened slightly.

"What do you _mean_ you can't find her? Surely you can sense her?" he asked, bewildered. Zoruru cringed slightly and looked down.

"I'm worried because I _can't_ sense her" he replied.

"…She can't have left the ship… we're in the middle of space…" Taruru mumbled, before a thought occurred to him "you don't think she…"

Zoruru didn't move his gaze from the floor.

"I searched her room earlier and found her laptop open and on a chat window. She'd been having another argument with Kururu… but this time it got out of hand" He said, monotone. "There was a long string of abusive messages. She hadn't replied to any of them. They were awful, every one of them"

Taruru stared at Zoruru in disbelief. Tororo wouldn't _kill_ herself. Not over some messages sent by Kururu. No, that would mean she lost to him, and she wouldn't have that. Would she?

He remembered Pururu scolding him one time when he did something minor that upset the salmon hacker. She said something about Tororo being a teenage girl, and that she would have crazy hormones that would occasionally give her mood swings. So maybe…

"Keep searching" Taruru ordered, startling Zoruru out of his trance. The assassin didn't think Taruru would take him so seriously, being the pessimist he was. Taruru was supposed to laugh it off and tell him he was being stupid, an overly worried older brother. But the fact that Taruru took it so seriously… kind of made him believe his fears.

"Of course" was all he said before he leapt into the ceiling.

Taruru stared after him for a second before sending a quick alert to Garuru. He was about to start searching himself, when he received a reply in the form of an order to meet Garuru and the others in the meeting room. Complying, he made his way there quickly, noticing that Zoruru had beaten him to it, fidgeting in his seat worriedly. Pururu was sat opposite him, watching curiously, while Garuru was stood at the head of the table. When the blue frog had seated himself, Garuru turned to Zoruru.

"Zoruru… could I please have a clear, calm explanation?" he asked simply and gently. Zoruru repeated what he had told Taruru, and told Garuru of his fears.

"Hmm. I wouldn't jump to such a conclusion so quickly" Garuru told him. He turned to the rest of his team before continuing.

"The search may continue, but I think leaving her be would be best. She may come out of her own accord"

"Leader, I told you, I CAN'T sense her life signals!" Zoruru cried, slamming both hands on the table, startling Pururu and Taruru.

"Calm yourself. Although I do trust your abilities as an assassin, there is still no definitive proof that Tororo is… _dead_. I suspect she is simply hiding away while she feels down, I'm sure she'll show up eventually"

Despite how sure he sounded, Taruru, Zoruru, and even Pururu couldn't help but doubt him. They respectfully asked to be excused from their duties for the day while they continued to search for the salmon tadpole.

* * *

Breathing heavily, Taruru leaned against the nearest wall, sliding down it as he felt the onset of a panic attack. He'd searched literally all day, not even stopping to eat or go to the bathroom. He couldn't find Tororo anywhere, and he'd searched every nook and cranny of the ship…

_She's opened the airlocks and walked out with no oxygen._

_Oh God. Oh God._

Taruru actually slapped himself in the face.

"Stop…" He mumbled to himself. He was losing it, he was almost one hundred per cent sure that Tororo was gone, that he'd never see her again. His eyes welled up with tears.

"T-Tororo…" He whimpered almost inaudibly.

He heard the sound of metal touching the floor in front of him, before a hand gently came to rest on his left shoulder.

"Taruru"

It was Zoruru. Taruru brought his head up to face him. The cyborg assassin looked worse for wear; he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. Taruru gulped painfully before falling against the older frog, letting his tears escape.

"She's gone, isn't she" he whispered, trying as hard as possible to regain his composure. Zoruru shook him slightly.

"You're disgusting"

Taruru glared up at the assassin, who looked back at him with an unreadable expression. He wanted to scream at him, yell obscenities into his face and tell him to shut up and leave him alone, but nothing would come out.

"I'm not supposed to be the one telling you not to give up, that's your job" Zoruru continued, his voice softer in a bid to show that he wasn't being hostile. "I _need_ you to be positive. I can't… I can't do this without your unwavering positivity"

Taruru watched him, his anger gradually fading away and being replaced with embarrassment. Slowly, he stood up, Zoruru backing away from him. The blue frog wiped his eyes and put on such a determined face, you would never know he'd been so upset.

"You're right. It's my mission to be an annoying, persistent little mite, I was _born_ to lack common sense and be optimistic!" He spoke loudly, banging his fist against his chest with pride. Normally, Zoruru would have sneered at him and told him to stop being such a child, but this time, he gave the younger frog a small grin. This was the boost he needed. It was the boost they _all_ needed.

"Well, I'm off. Holler if you find anything" Taruru chirped as he skipped off, as if nothing had happened at all.

Zoruru briefly wondered if Taruru possessed multiple personalities, though the grin never left his face.

* * *

Taruru dragged his hand across the wall. It was now one am, and he was absolutely shattered. Stubbornly, he pressed on, leaning against the wall the whole way. About twenty minutes down the hall, he caught his finger on something sharp.

"Oww…" He winced, wearily searching for the perpetrator. He noted that there was a thin edge protruding from the wall, though it was hidden right in the shadow of a roof support. Rubbing his eyes, he looked closer, and found that it was actually a small door. Had it always been there? He'd certainly never noticed it. Hooking his fingers on the metal edge, he slowly pulled it open and went inside.

The room was small and dimly lit; he couldn't make out any details except for major ones like pipes running along the walls near the roof. Squinting his eyes, he spotted a bundle in the corner. Staggering over to it sleepily to take a closer look, he froze in his tracks.

It was Tororo. She was curled up in a ball, asleep.

Not dead.

Taruru's eyes welled up with tears as he tore across the remainder of the room and gathered the salmon hacker into his arms, squeezing her tightly and nuzzling her head.

"Tororo" He said, not finding the energy to speak loudly or clearly as he was overrun with so many emotions, the most prominent being _relief._

Tororo squirmed slightly as she awoke, confused and slightly startled as she felt herself being squashed into someone's chest. She managed to tilt her head up and study her attacker, which, to her relief, turned out to be Taruru.

"Taruru, I can't breathe" was all she managed, her mind still hazy with sleep.

"Tororo" Taruru repeated, crying into the tadpole's helmet, terrified of letting her go, as if she would suddenly vanish if he did.

After a small struggle, Tororo managed to wrench herself away from the hysterical blue frog and grip onto his arms.

"Taruru what's happening?" Tororo asked, wondering if she'd missed something while she'd been asleep.

"N-nothing, you're alive, you haven't killed yourself, you were just hiding, oh my god, oh my god…" Taruru sputtered. Tororo stared at him in bewilderment before memories of her online argument with Kururu resurfaced.

Without much warning at all, Tororo instantly burst into tears, clinging back onto her friend almost as hard as he'd clung to her. She was upset, confused and anxious, but she was so glad that Taruru was here with her, that she wasn't alone.

The two of them cried together for several minutes, before running out of tears to shed, and just sort of cuddling in the cramped space of the hidden room.

"Never ever do that again" Taruru whispered into Tororo's helmet, his body still shaking slightly from the lengthy tear session.

"I'm sorry" Tororo sniffed in reply. "I'm sorry"

Waiting for a few moments until they had calmed down, the two of them left the tiny room and made their way to the meeting room to send everyone message on their communicators to let them know that Tororo, Taruru never letting go of the salmon tadpole's hand as they went.

* * *

The next day, a meeting was called almost immediately and the five platoon members congregated to the control room. Upon seeing Tororo enter the room, the cyborg assassin literally leapt over to her, scooping her into his arms and holding her close.

"You're ok" He breathed. He felt Tororo nod under his chin. "You scared the crap out of me" he mumbled, beginning to rock her slightly, as if she was a baby.

"I'm sorry" she said, nuzzling into the familiar arms of the cyborg acting as her big brother.

"I couldn't sense you" Zoruru complained, frustrated that he couldn't do something as simple as sense the presence of a comrade. Tororo looked at him oddly, before noticing the tiniest of dips in Zoruru's face plate, near his forehead.

"You must have somehow damaged that" She said, prodding at the tiny flaw. "Simply knocking things slightly out of place is enough to disrupt signals, and that includes natural ones sent to the organic half of your brain" She briefly explained, giggling at the embarrassed sigh from the grey assassin.

Just like usual.

Watching from the side, Pururu teared up a little, but otherwise refrained from smothering Tororo in affection. Glancing to the side, she caught Garuru grinning big, a sigh of relief escaping his lips. He'd been just as worried as everyone else. Pururu shook her head at his stubbornness.

A few moments later, Taruru came through the door, looking more exhausted than he ever had before. Tororo, noticing his arrival, wiggled out of Zoruru's grasp and went over to him. Seeing her approach, Taruru opened his arms and pulled her into a tight hug, the tadpole hacker returning it almost immediately. Zoruru watched on almost jealously, but said nothing, knowing it was Taruru who found her in the first place.

When the meeting eventually did go underway, Tororo explained everything, from her first reaction to the comments from Kururu to the moment she was discovered by Taruru, struggling to hold in her tears as she mentally relived the events. Garuru's first reaction was to contact the Keroro platoon and inform them of Kururu's behaviour, before approaching the tadpole and comforting her himself, her story activating his hidden 'brother mode' Pururu made notes, as if she were a psychiatrist, and Zoruru and Taruru simply watched from the side. The platoon had never looked so much like a family until that moment.

* * *

Later on, just before the platoon retired to bed, Taruru snuck into Tororo's room, knowing he'd be brutally murdered by Zoruru if he was caught visiting her at this time of night.

"Tororo?" He whispered as he slunk in through the door, silently closing it behind him.

"Hmm?" Tororo moaned, rubbing her tired eyes as she switched on her bedside light. She watched him as he made his way to her, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I just… well I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I didn't want you to be alone if you were upset again"

"Taruru…" Tororo smiled slightly, before letting out a jaw aching yawn. "I'm tired, flecks… I appreciate the concern… But all I want to do is sleep…" she mumbled forcing her eyes to stay open. Taruru hesitated before nodding, reaching out and stroking her shoulder lightly.

"If you feel even the slightest bit down or upset, _please_ come to me" He pleaded quietly before standing up and making his way out of the room, whispering a curt goodnight to the sleepy tadpole.

Returning to his own room, Taruru flung himself on the bed and closed his eyes. He waited. And waited.

Opening his eyes again, he yawned before moaning irritably.

"Why can't I sleep?" He asked himself under his breath, rolling into another position to see if it helped. He rolled over again. And again. And again.

He groaned to himself and sat up. He might as well check on Tororo.

_But he just _had _checked on her mere minutes ago._

Why was he…?

_No._

He froze for a brief moment before groaning again and burying his face in the pillow.

He was in love with her, wasn't he?

**A/N**

**This chapter so totally fits the 'humour and romance' category, right? DERP.**

**I started this chapter last week after re-watching an old Doctor Who episode (because Colin Morgan was in it X3 He's so awesome XD) and that show has always left me with a morbidly creative motivation, and that's why the chapter seems kind of dark 8P**

**I finished it tonight after starting one of the books in my mums collection of depressing disaster stories and mystery novels, and that sort of gave me the depressing push I needed to finish off this weird chappie to end all weird chappies XD**

**The ending was sort of abrupt. That's what I was going for. (If you paid attention to the last couple of chapters, you could probably tell that he was already starting to feel something for Tororo, so it's not exactly out of the blue XD)**

**If my brain didn't have a mental clock that says 'Go to bed at 10 PM!', I would write a better AN, but as its half ten where I am, my brain won't let me do that XD**

**So that's all. Until the next random ass chapter, I bid you adieu 83**

**PS. I appreciate all the reviews I get for this story (shout out to the anon who I can't reply to XD) but only a small few of them have actually told me what exactly they like about each chapter, so if in future you DO review again (thanks in advance X3) I want to know what I'm doing right, and what I'm doing wrong. How else am I gonna improve, ya know? X3**

**Thanks again X333**


	8. Helping Hand (Chores)

Zoruru chuckled as he watched Tororo carry her small plate of toast into the dining room. Her breakfast was considerably smaller than usual, which only meant one thing.

She had gotten in trouble for something and was in charge of cleaning the dishes for a week, despite the fact that the platoon owned a dish washer.

Pururu had come up with this punishment as a way to stop the platoon members having arguments and fighting with each other, for the sake of maintaining the bonds within the platoon (Pururu and Garuru having never broken these rules to date) and it had seemed to work, as fights happened rarely nowadays. However, Tororo had broken the rules by getting very angry at Taruru for stealing her snacks and attempting to beat him up over it. She hadn't been in the best of moods that day.

"What?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Nothing, nothing" He smirked, standing up and going to the kitchen, supposedly to put his dirty dish in the sink for Tororo to clean later. To her horror, however, Zoruru only came back with a huge plate consisting of a ginormous English breakfast.

"Feeling peckish, _are_ we?" Tororo growled.

"Feeling bitter, _are_ we?" Zoruru mimicked with another smirk as he chowed down on the food that he wasn't really that hungry for, but wanted the chance to tease her about it.

"You're such a dick, sometimes" Tororo huffed, finishing off her tiny plate of toast.

"Watch it; you might get another week added to your quota" Zoruru pointed out, before softening his expression and pushing his plate over to Tororo.

"Go ahead and eat it, I know you're hungry, and there's no point starving yourself so you have to do less dishes" He said, before standing up, patting her on the head affectionately and leaving the room. Tororo reacted only by sticking her tongue out at him, even though she was actually very thankful for the offered food.

As she was finishing it off, wiping as much residue of the plate as she could with some bread and eating that too, Taruru entered the room with a tired stagger. Spotting Tororo, however, seemed to encourage him to straighten up.

"Ah! Good morning Tororo" He hummed as he made his way into the kitchen. Tororo sighed. Everyone on her platoon was going to eat as much crap as possible to make this even harder for her. She groaned and buried her head in her arms.

"Tororo?"

She looked up again to see Taruru carrying two sandwiches in each hand, without a plate.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"How are you going to eat those?" she asked in reply.

"With my mouth" Taruru said, raising an eye ridge.

"You'll make a mess" Tororo pointed out.

"Not one you'll have to clean up, though" Taruru smiled.

Tororo just stared at him. Why was he of all people trying to help her out? Hadn't she tried to hit him the other day? Tororo just frowned at him. This had to be a trick, some way of making an even BIGGER mess for her to clean.

"Tororo… it's my fault you're in this situation, I don't want to make it any worse for you" He said his cheeks turning slightly pink as he looked away with an embarrassed frown. Tororo simply huffed at him, though she did believe he wanted to make it easier for her, and she was touched for that reason. Taruru sighed slightly at her reaction before walking off somewhere, no doubt to messily devour his strange choice of breakfast.

* * *

Late in the afternoon, after everyone had finished dinner, Tororo reluctantly trudged into the kitchen. Seeing the pile of plates, she cursed to herself. Most of them were hers and Zoruru's. If Zoruru didn't feel the need to tease her, and if she could just control her hunger pangs, there would be a much, much smaller pile. At least Taruru was being nice to her, only one of the plates was his.

All of Zoruru's dishes seemed the messiest, she noticed with a sour frown. She'd get him back for this.

She groaned audibly before trudging up to the sink. She felt not only bored while cleaning dishes, but also painfully primitive. Knowing that there was a dish washer so nearby annoyed her, but she wouldn't break another rule. She didn't want another week of dishes.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Turning around, she saw none other than Taruru.

"What are _you_ doing here?" She asked quietly.

Taruru said nothing, just approaching the sink and turning on the taps, beginning to wash the first set of plates and glasses. Tororo watched for a second.

"What are you doing…?" she asked, flatly.

"I'm helping you clean the dishes" Taruru replied, as if giving the answer to the question of what time it was.

"Why?"

"Because, like I said, it's my fault you have to do this. If I hadn't stolen your snacks in the first place, you wouldn't have felt the need to attack me" he hummed, towel drying the first article.

"But…"

"No buts"

Tororo stared in disbelief at the frog before her. Well, she wasn't about to let him do all the work for her just because he playfully teased her before she had snapped at him. She took hold of the nearest glass and stood next to Taruru, washing and drying with him, finding the whole thing much less tedious with a friend to help.

Standing off to the side slightly, Pururu was watching silently. She was originally going to go in there and scold Taruru for helping Tororo with her punishment, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. They just looked so sweet, stood almost flush up against each other, cleaning dishes together and chatting amiably. She decided she'd stay quiet, and let them do what they were doing. After all – it wasn't really hurting anyone.

* * *

Luckily for Tororo, the rest of the week had been fairly easy, as Zoruru was making himself sick with all the extra food he was eating so he stopped. Plus, Tororo had gone on one of her many 'This is it, I've definitely stopped' diets that was bound to end within a few days, so the dishes had been just under that of an average platoon.

Why just under? Taruru was still trying as hard as possible not to use any plates, for her sake. She was thankful, but still oddly confused by it.

Taruru also helped her with the dishes every night, so everything got done much faster. She had no idea why Taruru decided that he was at fault, but she couldn't really stop him. He was acting as though he had _framed_ her for something, which he obviously hadn't.

By the end of the week, Pururu congratulated Tororo on a job well done, and took her off the chore rota. However, she also tracked down Taruru and thanked him, too.

"How did you…? Am I in trouble?" Taruru frowned.

"You _should_ be, but I'm letting you off this time"

Taruru beamed and turned around, but as he left, he just caught Pururu calling out to him.

"You just looked so adorable working together, just like a married couple!"

Taruru went beet red and tore down the rest of the hall, feeling the nurse's smirk bore into the back of his head.

"Sh-Shut up!"

* * *

Later in the evening, Tororo came into Taruru's room and sat beside him, making him jump.

"Ever heard of knocking?!" Taruru hissed, having just dropped the Game Boy he was using onto his foot. Tororo chuckled.

"Yes, but where's the fun in that?" She said, sticking her tongue out. Taruru rolled his eyes and retrieved his Game Boy.

Suddenly, he felt two arms wrap around him and hug him close. His cheeks became warm as he glanced down at Tororo.

"W-what's this for?" he asked bashfully.

"It's for helping me out all week. You really didn't have to do that" Tororo said, before abruptly standing up and leaving the room. Taruru stared at the door for a while before groaning and flopping onto his bed, covering his burning cheeks with his hands as if to hide them. Why did he have to crush on someone as unpredictable as Tororo? Maybe his brain hated him. That must be it. How else could he be such an idiot when he was in fact a genius?

"TARURU!"

He'd forgotten that he'd brushed all the crumbs from his sandwich into Zoruru's room.

**A/N**

**Okay I'm gonna get working on the next chapter straight away because this chapter just refused to be good, and it's PAINFULLY short DX Daaaah I hate it more than anything else I've written in a while DXXXX**

**My excuse is that from this chapter onward, I'm going to be incorporating the '100 theme writing challenge', and since some of the prompts will be out of my comfort one, they probably won't all be the best they could be XD**

**This chapter would normally have been 'introduction', but since there is already seven chapters before this, I changed it to a prompt from an art 100 theme challenge that wasn't already on the list, in this case, it was 'Chores'**


	9. Understanding You (Complicated)

**A/N: Thanks a lot to SouthernKittyGal for pointing out I posted the wrong content for this chapter! God I'm so embarrassed DX at least you can read it NOW XD**

Today was father's day. Garuru and Pururu had gone to their respective homes to spend the day with their fathers, something that Taruru usually did too, only this year his father was very busy and it wasn't possible to meet up, so the two of them had decided to meet up on another day.

Taruru was not surprised that Zoruru had stayed. He was separated from his mother at a very young age, and he never knew his father, so he just treated the day like any other. He WAS surprised, in fact, to see that Tororo was also still on the ship. She was clacking away meaninglessly on her laptop, googling anything she could think of out of what appeared to be boredom. As Taruru had usually been away, he had never noticed if Tororo had ever gone to see her family or not. Was her father busy too?

He ambled over to her and plopped down beside her, staring at the screen of her laptop, which currently had an article about recent breakthroughs in forensic science displayed on it. He though it was a rather strange thing to want to look up when you're bored.

"You should try clever bot or something" He suggested.

"If I wanted to talk to someone that simply repeats random crap they hear from other people, I would talk to you" she said monotonously. Probably in jest, but Taruru still felt slightly hurt. He decided to just get on with his question.

"I was wondering, why haven't you gone to see your dad? It's father's day, after all"

Tororo jolted very slightly before turning to Taruru with an icy look.

"What business is it of yours?" She said, with a calm, quiet sort of venom that confused him.

"I-I'm sorry" He said, looking away. Tororo's face softened slightly, as if only just realising that Taruru didn't actually do anything wrong.

"No… it's ok. It's just… complicated" Tororo murmured, standing up and walking away, her laptop in tow.

Taruru blankly watched as the salmon tadpole walked away. He didn't like mystery, and right now, he was very, very curious. What was complicated? Just what exactly did she mean?

Glancing to the side he noticed Zoruru meditating near a window. If Tororo had told anyone about her parents, it would have to be Zoruru. Taruru stood up from his position on the floor and made his way over to the silent cyborg.

"Hey, Zoruru" He called, knocking on the metal side of Zoruru's face in an attempt to 'wake him up'. The assassin whipped around in annoyance, glaring at the younger frog.

"What do you want?" He growled, not happy to be interrupted when he'd just got to his 'happy place'.

"What's the deal with Tororo's parents?" Taruru asked, having a feeling it wasn't just her father that was involved in this 'complicated' mystery.

Zoruru stared him down for a bit, his gaze unwavering. Taruru shifted uncomfortably under the piercing gaze.

"That is none of your business" He said at last, eliciting an annoyed groan from the blue frog.

"That's what she said when I asked her" He said "Why can't I know? The world's hardly gonna end just because I found out some mysterious fact about her family or whatever.

Zoruru raised an eye ridge before sighing.

"It's complicated" He said, watching in mild amusement as Taruru face palmed and left the room in a huff.

'She must have told him _that_, too' He thought to himself.

* * *

Taruru sat in a grumpy slouch on his bed, his legs crossed beneath his folded arms. Why wasn't he allowed to know? He wasn't a kid, if it was something serious, he was mature enough to deal with it, and maybe offer some sort of comfort or advice if need be.

He thought about the look that appeared on her face for a split second when he mentioned her dad. She looked somewhat broken. He didn't like that at all. He _hated_ it when she got upset, so he usually found a way to distract her or cheer her up. Only this time, he couldn't because he didn't know what exactly was up, which was infuriating.

"Maybe she's argued with him" He said to himself, raising his head slightly. It seemed like a fair enough possibility, so he stood up and stretched.

"I'd better make sure they make up, then" He chirped, his frustration repressed by hope. He left his room and snuck as stealthily as possible towards Tororo's room.

He seemed to have forgotten the slightly stealthier person aboard the ship with him.

He was suddenly yanked upwards, into the ceiling, landing face to face with a glowing red eye. Zoruru really didn't miss anything.

"What were you doing, sneaking around Tororo's room, hm? Think carefully about your answer" He hissed, tilting his arm so that the faint shine of the edge of the blade in the darkness. Yet again, the protective cyborg had the completely wrong idea.

"I was only going to ask about her dad again" Taruru admitted, not really feeling like lying when he was in Zoruru's territory. The cyborg sighed exasperatedly at his reply.

"You aren't going to leave this alone, are you?" he muttered, frowning further when the blue frog shook his head deliberately. He should have known.

"Why do you have to be so nosy?" Zoruru scolded.

"I just want to make sure she's alright. She's my best friend, and I don't like not knowing why she's down" Taruru replied, frowning into his lap "It's not fair that you get to know and I don't"

Zoruru rolled his eyes.

"Don't pout, rookie" he sighed "You know full well why she tells me everything"

Taruru frowned further in recognition. Zoruru and Tororo _had_ joined the platoon as a package deal. They were all the other had at the time. Taruru still didn't know anything about _that_ either. He fumed silently.

"If I put you back on the floor, you WILL leave Tororo alone. Understand?" Zoruru said firmly.

Taruru only nodded, before being brought down into the hallway again.

And almost squashing an unsuspecting tadpole.

"Good god you two, what they hell were you doing? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Tororo cried, staring at them as they got up from the floor.

"I was just cautioning him" Zoruru said, before glaring meaningfully at Taruru and jumping off again. Tororo looked back up and stared at Taruru in confusion.

"Do I want to know?" She asked.

"It's nothing major. He just told me to stop pestering you about what I asked you this morning" He drawled grumpily. Tororo stared at him in silence.

"Why do you want to know so much?" Tororo asked simply.

"Because I care about you, and I want to be able to help you" He replied, equally simply. Tororo smirked before turning back to her room.

"The sooner you shut up about it, the better. Come on" She said, beckoning for him to follow her in.

Closing the door behind him, Taruru went up to join Tororo on the edge of her bed. She swivelled to face him.

"You have to promise not to interrupt or start asking a billion questions before I'm done, alright? I need flow to tell you this story" She said, treating it as though it was just a mundane recollection of what she did the day before. Taruru nodded, and made a show of 'zipping his lips' with his fingers.

Tororo took a deep breath before looking up towards the ceiling, as if wondering where to begin. Taruru stared into space for a while as he waited.

"It was obvious I was unnaturally intelligent from very early on" She began, causing Taruru to return his attention to her. Why was she starting so far back?

"I learned to talk before I was even a year old, and was able to hold normal conversation by the time I was two. Walking came to me quickly, too. My parents were proud of me" she said with a smile. Taruru wondered how her intelligence had anything to do with it if her parents were impressed by it.

"It was fine until my first day of primary school. I skipped pre-school – I didn't need it. Both of my parents walked me there, and decided to stay while I immersed myself into the class with all the new faces. The only problem was… I didn't" She paused for a moment, her tongue poking out of her mouth while she thought of what to say next.

"I remember walking up to one of the boys playing outside and asking how he was. My parents never really told me I was more intelligent than the normal children, so when he replied with a slurred voice as to whether I would like to make mud cakes with him, I quickly backed away. I thought something was… wrong with him. It was only when I looked around and saw that all the other children were the same that I… I screamed"

Taruru jolted slightly, not expecting that revelation.

"You… screamed?"

Tororo put a finger to her mouth, reminding him to stay quiet.

"I was petrified. I didn't know what was going on. I was expected to fit in with a group of children who thought differently to me, that acted in a way I thought was strange when in fact it was normal. I know I had a panic attack because of it. I can't really remember much after that, except that I was enrolled in the year five class"

She was moved all the way up to year _five_? Taruru couldn't imagine what it felt like to be an intellectual trapped in the body of a small child.

"It was weird when I started. I was only just turning five, when all of my class mates were either nine or ten. I got on with them fair enough – they all thought I was adorable, and they treated me like an equal. I actually really enjoyed school, and my parents were happy for me too. However, it seemed that now only was my IQ unnaturally high, but it was rising at an unnatural rate. I absorbed information like a sponge, I worked hard with my work, and I was able to easily understand almost anything that was thrown at me. So, instead of moving up to year six the next year, I was sent to secondary school, to join the year ten class. It was very, very different there. I had only turned seven about a month before joining, and unlike my class at primary school, my high school peers did not like that at all. I got bullied almost all the time. They didn't care that I was only a child, they just thought I was nerd that made everyone else look bad. I didn't study as well due to this, and I left high school in the same year as the rest of my class"

Taruru watched intently as Tororo took her first pause in a while. She obviously just wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible.

"I decided to take two college courses when I left – one was quantum mechanics, the other forensic science. The nearest college that could take me for those courses was absolutely miles away, so I had to pack my things and live in the dorms there… to cut the rest of the story short, my preparation was rushed, so I didn't remember to get my parents contact details, and my life was such a whirlwind of qualifications, degrees, work, and many sleepless nights of study, I was never given the chance to go back and see them. I haven't seen either of my parents for nine years"

She sighed, one with her story, and now just observed Taruru's reaction. Said blue frog was taking a while to take it all in. Tororo's abnormal intelligence had taken her many places, but she had no idea that it had that much of an effect on her personal life. The last time she saw her parents was when she was just nine years old.

Without warning, Taruru leaned forward and pulled Tororo into a tight hug. The tadpole stiffened at first, not expecting the reaction, before slowly relaxing and wrapping her arms around Taruru's shoulders.

"Now do you understand?" she asked gently, as if she was trying to sooth an upset child. Taruru nodded over her shoulder before realising she couldn't see it.

"Yeah. I'm sorry I made you tell me that" He said apologetically. Tororo chuckled slightly.

"It's alright. I'm glad I was able to tell someone else. Thank you for caring about me" she said quietly, though a strong hint of gratefulness was present

After a while, the two of them pulled apart from each other, and simply watched each other warily.

"You'll see them again eventually" Taruru said suddenly "I'll help you"

Tororo smiled amiably at him and chuckled quietly.

"Thank you, Taruru"

**A/N**

**I apologise profusely for this chapter. Not only was I busy with college, but I suffered a huge block with this story (The prompt for this chapter was 'complicated' if you couldn't tell by the overuse of the word, and I was originally going to write about Tororo's feud with Kururu, but I decided to change it and write about my head canon for her past with her parents (kept brief, she was only telling the bare minimum))**

**I was actually able to complete this story thanks to the help of the visual novel 'Katawa Shoujo' which is awesome (Though I don't recommend it to people under a LEAST 16… it does contain H scenes)**

**Now I'll go and check what the next prompt it. I finished this at 10:15 am so I've still got loads of time to start another chapter ^^**


	10. My Gladiator (Making History)

Managing to land on his feet, the blue frog skidded backwards, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. He successfully maintained his balance, and was ready to launch back into the fight. His enemy nimbly evades the attacks, but the occasional, powerful punch or laser shot hits him, slightly grazing or singing his armour. He was panting – the younger frog had improved immensely in his combat skills, and it now seemed as though he had more stamina than he. Whipping the sword out of his arm, the older frog lunged for his target, careful to hold it at a slight angle so as not to truly injure his sparring partner. To his surprise, the younger frog was able to block the blow and keep hold of it, mustering up his strength to use it to flip the assassin over onto his back. He had won, this time.

Zoruru dusted himself off after being helped up from his position from Taruru. The two of them were exhausted; it had been a good work out.

"You're improvement is obvious. I had to work a little harder this time. Maybe I'll have to go all out next time"

Although it sounded like bragging, it was actually a huge compliment. Taruru knew that Zoruru was much stronger than him, and faster. But the fact that Zoruru said he had to actually _work_ to protect himself… he felt a surge of pride.

The two of them looked up at the viewing balcony when they heard clapping.

"That was wonderful, you two! I haven't seen a tussle like that in a long time" Pururu complimented, smiling widely at the two.

"You were AWESOME Taruru! You were really kicking his ass!" Tororo grinned as she hung her arms over the side. Taruru hid a blush while Zoruru scowled slightly.

Garuru hadn't been clapping, but he was grinning slightly too, a fang poking from beneath his upper lip as he diligently noted down his assessment on the brawl.

Taruru left the area with a huge smile on his face. Now it was even _harder_ to wait for the competition next week, he felt so proud of his performance.

Taruru was a member of the Universal Martial Arts society and for the first time ever, he had been picked as one of the three representatives of Keron to compete in the annual UMA Championship tournament. His fellow platoon members were very happy for him. Even Zoruru.

He was absolutely determined to do well this year. A Keronian hadn't won this tournament for about 145 years. He was going to win that title, to be a hero, to be proven mature and powerful… and also to impress Tororo.

He never even imagined that Tororo would be interested in combat, as a more secluded, lazy technician that would much prefer to code data than to even just go out for a walk. But when Taruru had begun training for the competition, he noted Tororo coming and watching him many times, being fixated on the action, and feeling the contagious excitement and adrenaline as himself and Zoruru sparred together. Seeing her openly enjoy watching the two of them, doing what they enjoyed… could that be considered common ground? He could only hope.

The week went by at a frighteningly slow pace… Taruru was getting impatient, but it didn't really show. He was always restless, after all.

A couple of days after, however, the end of the week seemed _too_ close.

Taruru was milling about in the hallways, trying to release some of the pent up energy he had from just impatiently waiting for the contest. Not even the sparring sessions really let him release steam. Fusing around the ship ended with him stood outside the door to Pururu's room. He knew Pururu had scheduled an appointment for Tororo today, so he decided that he would stay outside and wait for her, to hopefully get her to hang out with him or something. Spending time with her should make time go at least a _little _bit faster.

As he was so close to the door, he could hear what was being said. His smile fell.

"Are you really sure you aren't up to it? Taruru will be upset" Asked Pururu in an obviously disappointed way. He heard Tororo sigh.

"Yes, I'm sure. My head is so thick at the moment… I don't know if I can handle being around so many people for such a long time. Taruru won't even be in all of the fights" she explained.

"It sounds to me like you're making excuses" Pururu pointed out.

"I'm not. I really don't think I'm physically up to going" Tororo stated. Another heavy sigh, this time from Pururu.

"Well… if you're sure… you should tell him"

There were shuffling sounds from the room. Tororo must have been shifting on her seat. There was a quiet whine.

"I know he's going to be upset… maybe he'll be mad at me" Tororo muttered sadly.

After that, there was just silence, occasionally broken by the odd sound of movement. Taruru moved out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by the door as it was opened from the inside, and Tororo stepped out.

"T-Taruru" She said as she spotted the blue frog before her. "How…" she glanced at the door she had just emerged from "How much did you hear?" she asked.

"Enough" Taruru replied "But its ok. I'm not upset"

The look that Tororo gave him showed that she knew he was lying, but she didn't press it. She merely uttered a quiet apology before making her way to her room. Taruru watched her as she left. Suddenly the whole idea of the contest seemed so pointless if she wouldn't be there.

* * *

The day of the tournament arrived, but only Garuru and Zoruru were able to come watch him. He was glad of this, of course he was, he just wished everyone could be there. But, he put his disappointment behind him – he was going to be the hero of the day, he was going to defeat all of the contestants and come out on top, the first Keronian to win the tournament in a century and a half. He was more than excited.

He split off from his two team mates as they entered the main building, Taruru making his way to the administration desk, where he verified his details and made his way into one of the many contestant waiting rooms. Like him, they were buzzing with excitement, desperate to get out there and show them what they'd got. There were so many aliens of all shapes and sizes that Taruru had no chance of spotting his fellow Keronian competitors. It felt like an age until the tournament actually began, but Taruru had enough of a distraction simply people watching.

His first match was against a Gulsian, an alien of fairly medium height in comparison to other competitors, making him about three times the size of Taruru. He wouldn't be a problem though – Gulsians are slow, slimy creatures that didn't have much of a defence, so Taruru finished him quickly, wondering why such a poorly adapted alien would be allowed into the competition. His matches that followed became progressively harder, and much larger, the smallest adversaries being Maronians, some of which were incredibly difficult and tiring to defeat. But, as he'd hoped, Taruru was getting through. He had ploughed his way through the majority of the fights, and only had seven fights left when he requested a short time out.

Walking into one of the cool waiting rooms, he sat down and smiled, drinking from a water bottle until he could drink no more before pouring the rest over his head. He was grinning widely. He couldn't stop replaying the deafening cheers, and the impressed, proud looks off his team mates.

_If only _she _was here._

He shook his head, banishing the thoughts. He had seven more matches, he needed to _concentrate_ on them.

Eventually, an invigilator called time on his break, and he returned out into the stadium, instantly searching the crowd for Garuru and Zoruru, who he found watching him expectantly nearer the front than before. Obviously the people coming to see competitors that had failed had left, having nothing more to see, though some did stay, simply to enjoy the battles.

The first three of the seven battles were unbelievably easy for Taruru. He had expected them to be stronger than they were, but then maybe they were fatigued, and his own stamina was to thank for his wins. His fourth battle was between himself and a fellow Keronian. The fight lasted a long time, because they didn't really want to fight, being the same species, but after prompts form the invigilators, they began to fight properly, Taruru reigning victorious again. The battle after than was very hard, Taruru was sure he would lose. Had there not been invigilators with protective gear, he would have thought his enemy would kill him.

The enemy was a very notorious alien called a Silent. Silents had a strange ability, where if you looked away from them for more than a few seconds, you would completely forget their existence. Luckily, Taruru knew this, and he made sure to keep the Silent in his direct line of sight. If it tried to hypnotise him and he looked away… he could fold the match without consciously meaning to.

Not having much of a problem with the earlier fights left Taruru with a lot of energy, and he was able to nimbly dodge the large bursts of electricity bursting from the Silent's hand. After running around in an almost aimless fashion, the Silent began to slow, and Taruru used the chance to hit him a few times with his optical lasers. Eventually, his opponent collapsed and Taruru was pronounced the winner of the round. He beamed up at the disbelieving faces of his peers, one of which, Zoruru, was yelling something to him and moving his arms about as if to tell him something, but he couldn't hear it. Judging by the fairly happy look on the cyborgs face, he decided that it probably wasn't that important.

Taruru managed to get another free rest after that battle, as his next opponent was very tried, and had finally decided to use his time out. The break didn't help the enemy much, as it was an Axlotian, and much smaller and slower than the previous opponents Taruru had fought, so the match ended very uneventfully. Realising he only had one battle left, he froze, only his legs were quivering.

He had made it into the FINAL. The ACTUAL FINAL. He couldn't believe it at all. For the first time in the tournament, Taruru felt nervous. The guy he was about to go up against was going to be a terribly difficult fight. He looked up into the crowd again, the two of his platoon members staring fixatedly at the pitch, Zoruru actually holding out a thumbs up. Taruru returned the gesture before doing some stretches and taking a deep breath.

"Are you ready to go?" asked the invigilator on his side, receiving a determined nod in reply.

The determination drained from him as he set eyes on his opponent, having to crane his neck just to get a proper look at it.

It was a Mortisian, a very large alien, about three times the size of an average adult male Pokopenian, and it was covered in huge, black scales, natural armour. It resembled a Pokopenian aardvark, with oversized silver claws and horns, and a long, purple tongue, dripping with an acid unique to the species. To say that Taruru was petrified is an understatement.

Before he could fully collect his thoughts, the battle had begun, and he had to move very suddenly and quickly to avoid a sweeping blow from the gargantuan creature. Not having time to mentally plan a landing, Taruru landed badly, hurting his right ankle, though it wasn't a serious injury. The ground almost shook as the beast leapt into the air, turning and landing facing the direction Taruru had leapt to. Taruru did not hesitate to blast the thing with his lasers, which had no effect. Taruru panicked a little , but managed to avoid another blow, this time landing properly. In a split second decision, he decided he would leap onto the body of the beast before it had turned, punching and kicking at it relentlessly, though only succeeding in cutting up his own knuckles. Hissing at the pain, he was not aware of the next swipe until it hit him.

He hit the floor hard, and he was sure he heard a crunching sound. Had he broken a bone? He felt weak. He was losing. He felt so embarrassed. To have gotten through the contest with only very few hitches, and then be beaten down in less than a minute by a new adversary… he felt pathetic.

He turned his head to look up to the stands, searching for Garuru and Zoruru. His eyes widened when he saw the two females that had joined them

Tororo and Pururu had managed to come and see him after all. And now he was losing pathetically. So much for impressing Tororo…

Speaking of which, the salmon tadpole was now leaning over the barrier, screaming at him to get up, and that he could do it, and other things he couldn't quite make out. Her face was read, and she looked like she was about to cry. He turned his head to his enemy. This fight was going to end now, and he was going to be the victor.

Pushing himself up, his body screaming in protest as he left the small pool he was lay in on the floor and straightened up. He stared the creature right in the eyes.

"I hope second place is good enough for you" He breathed. "Because it isn't good enough for ME!" He ended with a yell. The Mortisian flung back his head and roared. It didn't know what a fatal error it had made. The bottom of its mouth, and the top of its throat were a pale grey, and had no protection whatsoever. Taruru had learned about the pressure points during training. If he could find one…

Taruru leapt at the enemy, eyes wide and screaming obscenities as his limbs sent a burning pain throughout his entire body, and gripped onto its back. Though the creature thrashed violently, Taruru was able to maintain his hold, and slowly ascend the Mortisian's body, until he was at it's shoulders.

The shaking became more violent now, the Mortisian screaming something in its native tongue… it knew that Taruru had found its weak spot. Taruru acted quickly, and managed to muster up enough strength to launch his arm at its neck, clawing and jabbing at its collar bone until its squeals began to subside. The creature was officially out cold.

Taruru hadn't considered the fall, and within a matter of seconds, he was squashed beneath a huge alien more than twelve times his size.

* * *

Bright lights. Familiar lights. Familiar voices.

Taruru opened his eyes groggily, instantly hissing and pawing at his sore head. The sound seemed to attract the attention of the people nearby, and soon enough, he was surrounded by his platoon.

"Oh, you're alright, I'm so happy!" Pururu gushed, holding back the urge to crush the injured frog in a hug. Garuru smiled and Zoruru breathed an audible sound of relief.

"Taruru you were awesome! Pu puuuu!" came the excited squeal from Tororo before she barrelled into him, trapping him in a hug.

"Tororo, you'll hurt him!" Pururu scolded.

Tororo looked up at Taruru, and he shook his head. Yes, she was hurting him, but she was also hugging him. That was a very real plus to the blue frog.

"Rookie"

Taruru looked up to see Zoruru, who looked so proud that Taruru was unsure he had actually woken up. The cyborg held out two framed certificates, and handed them to Taruru. The blue frog's eyes widened. One was the certificate that proclaimed him the winner of the UMA Championship Tournament, and the other was a universal record certificate. Squinting at it, he could hardly believe his eyes.

'_The youngest competitor to make it to the semi-finals of the Universal Martial Arts Championship Tournament;_

_Private First Class Taruru_

_Aged 17'_

"I…. I broke a record?" Taruru breathed.

Tororo answered him by nodding almost violently.

"You bet you have. You've made history, flecks!" Tororo cheered, before rewarding Taruru with a kiss on the cheek.

Taruru felt bad for treating that reward with more pride than his two certificates.

**A/N**

**It's nearly half eleven where I am right now, so the AN will not have any other comments apart from the fact that there was a doctor who reference in this chapter. Did you get it?**


End file.
